One of the differences between US and British detective dramas is that the latter never influence men's fashion. No sooner had the opening credits rolled on the first episode of Miami Vice than the nation's suburban lotharios hastened as one to Burton's as if to prove that a pastel jacket and slip-on loafers looked every bit as striking on a portly middle-aged man in the Arndale Centre as they did on Don Johnson cruising down Ocean Drive, just in a very different way. Nothing equivalent happened with Bergerac or A Touch Of Frost. Somehow the nation's suburban loatharios seem capable of sitting through Midsomer Murders (an impressive feat of endurance in itself) without rushing to Burton's for the full DCI Barnaby.

So it's testament to the impact of the BBC's Sherlock that, before the series had even ended, Belstaff was forced to put the wool trench coat worn by Benedict Cumberbatch back into production. Presumably enquiries slowed when it turned out said coat cost £1,350, but you can see why men wanted to get the look. Perhaps they noted the effect Cumberbatch, by no means your standard telly hunk, had on lady viewers ("He looks like Sid The Sloth from Ice Age – but in a hot way," gasped one female friend), and decided it must have something to do with the clobber. So it is that Britain's latest men's style icon is a fictional asexual sociopath first seen onscreen hitting a corpse with a stick. Surely not even the great detective himself could have deduced that was going to happen.

• Alexis wears coat, £605, by D&G, from Harvey Nichols. Trousers, £95, and scarf, £39, both by Reiss. Shoes, from a selection, by Fins. Photograph: David Newby for the Guardian. Styling: Aradia Crockett. Grooming: Nikki Palmer at Mandy Coakley.